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Eric Siu explains empathy as picking the right audience, not convincing the wrong one. Stop arguing with people who don't want what you offer. Focus on those who do, and make your work better for them.
Eric Siu explains empathy as picking the right audience, not convincing the wrong one. Stop arguing with people who don't want what you offer. Focus on those who do, and make your work better for them.
So let's say you're a stand-up comic and you've had a tough row of it, but your agent finally gets you a good gig. You really work on your set. You show up at the gig and it's 300 people. You bomb. There isn't a laugh in the house. And you discover on your way out that it's a tour group from Italy and no one speaks English. So whose fault is it that you bombed? Right? Well, it's your agent's fault because they didn't tell you that no one there spoke English. You were telling jokes in English, insisting that they get the jokes. But they don't speak English. They're not your audience. So empathy says you get to pick your audience. Stop arguing with people who don't get the joke. Stop arguing with people who don't want to go where you're going. Pick the audience that needs you. If they don't like your work, make better work. If they do like your work, they'll tell the others. And so empathy is this simple idea to say, if I don't get what these people want and I can't assert it, then I can't do good work. Got it.
